Educational Strategies to Enhance Critical Thinking

Think back to your high school years. Do you remember what you learned in school?

While one of the goals of education is to instill a solid understanding of core subjects, many teens graduate with finely tuned memorization skills, rather than genuine knowledge that will serve them in college and beyond.

At Talisman Academy, a North Carolina boarding school for teens with high-functioning autism, science and American literature teacher Sarah Shoemaker has set out to ensure that her students actually understand what they’re learning. Using tools such as metacognition, Bloom’s Taxonomy and scaffolding, the teachers at Talisman Academy give teens with autism the skills they need to excel.

Metacognition
A critical part of teaching teens with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders involves “metacognition,” or awareness of one’s own cognitive processes. Ms. Shoemaker refers to it as “how you know what you know.”

Metacognition refers to the higher order thinking that gives a student active control over the learning process. Because everyone learns differently, students with metacognitive skills know when and how to use particular strategies to maximize their own learning and problem-solving.

Examples of metacognitive tasks and strategies include:

• Planning how to approach a task
• Monitoring your own understanding of a lesson or assignment
• Evaluating your progress toward completing a task
• Becoming aware of distractions and lapses in focus or attention
• Asking yourself questions and thinking aloud while performing a task
• Making charts and graphs of various facts

By learning how to regulate their own cognition, teens with high-functioning autism are able to maximize their ability to think, learn and evaluate information. Metacognition is particularly important for autistic teens because it helps them:  

• Work more efficiently and perform better on exams
• Grow confident in their ability to choose the best approach to solve a given problem
• Identify their learning challenges and modify their approach in order to achieve their goals
• Develop a wide range of tools they can call upon to complete a task

When Ms. Shoemaker stands before a classroom of students too shy to raise their hand because they are not certain how to answer a question, and one student raises their hand to answer correctly, she asks that student to explain how they knew the answer. This reinforces the student’s social and analytical skills while also showing the other students how their peer made the connection and retained the information. 

“I remember sitting in classes, not knowing an answer when someone else did. I also remember the teacher saying ‘Great!’ and moving on, meanwhile I still didn’t understand,” explained Ms. Shoemaker. “This approach is designed to cut down on that kind of frustration and enhance every student’s learning.”

Bloom’s Taxonomy
At Talisman Academy, Ms. Shoemaker asks her students to go beyond rote memorization and become better thinkers. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy, a classification system for learning objectives, students are asked to work their way up through the various levels of learning, including:

• Knowledge – recall facts, theories and concepts
• Comprehension – demonstrate understanding by organizing, comparing and interpreting facts
• Application – solve problems by applying knowledge in a different way
• Analysis – examine information and make inferences
• Synthesis – compile information and propose alternative solutions to a problem
• Evaluation – make judgments about information and defend opinions

Ms. Shoemaker puts this classification system to work in her science class. For example, while students may begin a lesson on mitosis by writing the steps on flashcards, the learning doesn’t end there.

After the students have their three-dimensional chromosome models attached to the flashcards, she also asks them to partner with another student to see if they can list the steps in order. When students demonstrate an ability to list the order, Ms. Shoemaker asks questions to help students think critically about why cells go through mitosis, how the chromosomes behave in mitosis and why, and to develop a deeper understanding of the purpose of each phase. 

Similarly, in literature class, students go beyond learning the parts of speech and reading standard short stories. When reflecting on a story, Ms. Shoemaker has created various graphic organizers that are designed to diagram the essay and engage students in analyzing what happened to the characters in the story. Essentially, the students are prompted to attempt some of the higher order skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

Students learn to be better writers by practicing the expected format of an essay, but they are also learning strategies to support basic descriptions and recounts of a story with higher level thinking and analysis. Using SMART Board technology, a series of interactive whiteboards, students are able to share their papers with the rest of the class, editing and offering suggestions to others.

Scaffolding
The teachers at Talisman Academy use an educational concept called scaffolding to encourage students to take on more difficult tasks. Teachers observe each student’s existing skills and then utilize teaching strategies that will challenge them to achieve at a higher level.

For example, a student who struggles with fragmented sentences may be paired with a student who has mastered writing skills, allowing the struggling student to model the other’s skills and the more advanced student to further their understanding by teaching someone else. Throughout the process, the teacher offers guidance and new opportunities for skill development.

Holistic Education for Teens with High-Functioning Autism
Talisman Academy utilizes these tools as part of its holistic approach to educating teens with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders. A favorable student-to-staff ratio and small class size allow teachers to meet each student’s academic needs on an individualized basis.

“We spend a lot of time with our students and get to know them well,” said Ms. Shoemaker. “This structured, supportive environment creates a strong sense of security, which allows students to make progress more quickly.”

Academically gifted students at Talisman Academy may complete an independent study that challenges them while providing additional support in areas of weakness. Teachers also provide instruction in small groups and one-on-one so that every student is able to demonstrate mastery of the material before moving on.

Rather than delivering a lesson plan in one format and expecting the same approach to work for every student, the teachers at Talisman Academy provide multi-sensory instruction that appeals to a variety of learning styles. In learning mitosis, for example, students may create posters charting the stages, analyze slides under a microscope, use rhymes and acronyms for memorization, and play an ordering game on the SMART Board.

“Every teacher knows the nuances of each child’s disability and helps students work on targeted behaviors to achieve their goals,” said Ms. Shoemaker. “This team approach provides a level of consistency that is hard to find in other educational settings.”

Growing Up in the Information Age
For the student with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s, using this type of instructional methodology challenges them to interpret the meaning of the information in front of them. But this is not just an invaluable skill for students on the spectrum; it is an increasingly valuable skill for all students growing up in the Information Age. After all, finding information is rarely a problem – knowing what to do with it sometimes is.